From Nowhere: Utopian and Dystopian Visions of our - Chris J. Young

32. Jonathan Swift (1667–1745). Travels into Several Remote Nations of the
World. London: B. Motte, 1726.
On its publication in 1726, Gulliver’s Travels was an immediate success, and has maintained its
uncontested position as one of the greatest satires in English literature. Swift’s story applies utopian and
dystopian principles to the correction of the ills of English society. in the fourth book, Lemuel Gulliver
encounters a race of equine creatures known as Houyhnhnms who segregate the Yahoos, an unpleasant
race of humanoids. The Houyhnhnms live in a self-styled utopia, demonstrating the extreme of Plato’s
concept of reason, whereas the Yahoos epitomize passion, mimicking the perverted side of human
nature. Gulliver, thrilled to find a people he can emulate, embraces the philosophy of the Houyhnhnms.
As these noble Houyhnhnms are endowed by Nature with a general Disposition to all
Virtues, and have no Conceptions or ideas of what is evil in a rational Creature; so
their grand Maxim is, to cultivate Reason, and to be wholly governed by it.
Because Gulliver resembles the Yahoos in appearance and behaviour, he is forced to leave. Unable to
reintegrate into English society with his wife, he shuns all humans and spends his evenings trying
to communicate with his horses in the Houyhnhnm language.
33. Simon Berington (1680–1755). The Memoirs of Sigr Gaudentio di Lucca.
London: T. Cooper, 1737.
Despite the apparent italian source of the work, implicit in the title, an italian edition was never printed
in the eighteenth century. First published anonymously in 1737 in English, the work was one of the
most successful novels of the period, and was translated into French, Dutch and German. it was not until
1785 that authorship of the work was finally attributed to the English Catholic priest Simon Berington.
The book presents itself as the confession and examination of Gaudentio di Lucca before the Fathers of
the inquisition in Bologna. The preliminary section of the Memoirs recount the adventures of Gaudentio
among the Mezzoranians in an unknown country in equatorial Africa. The middle section focuses on the
Mezzoranians’ history and institutions, and describes a utopia in the literary tradition of Thomas More,
Tommaso Camponella, and Francis Bacon. The remainder of the Memoirs concludes with Gaudentio’s
release from the inquisitors. The narrative is intermittently interrupted by the inquisitors, and the text is
annotated with lofty footnotes, attributed to an editor, Signor Ruedi. The work itself is essentially a series
of narratives, with no fewer than six narrative voices, each integrated into the text to lend it a semblance
of credibility and authority. The complicated plot only adds to the mystery of the story, the question of
authorship, and the credibility of the Mezzoranians at a time in history when European countries were
still discovering uncharted lands and peoples.
52 Case Five & Six: Exploring Nowhere